Copy of BF Skinner & Operant Conditioning

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From a Rat in a Box to a Child in a Classroom B.F Skinner and Operant Conditioning Burrhus Frederic Skinner March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990 Biography Born in Susquehanna, PA1926 - BA in English from Hamilton College1930 - MA Harvard1931 - Ph.D. Harvard1936 - marries Yvonne Blue - two daughters, Julie and Deborah1945 - Psychology Department Chair - University of Indiana1948 - Psychology Department - Harvard (until his death) Awards 1966 - Edward Lee Thorndike Award, American Psychological Association1968 - National Medal of Science from President Lyndon B. Johnson1971 - Gold Medal of the American Psychological Foundation1972 - Human of the Year Award1990 - Citation for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology What isOperant Conditioning? A method of learning thatoccurs through rewards and punishments for behavior.An association is made betweena behavior and a consequencefor that behavior Two KeyComponents of Operant Conditioning Reinforcementvs.Punishment Reinforcement Positivevs.Negative Punishment Positivevs.Negative Positive reinforcers are favorable events that are presented after the behavior. A response or behavior is strengthened by the addition of something pleasant, such as praise or a direct reward.Classroom Example: stickers, bonus time on favorite activity Negative reinforcers involve the removal of an unfavorable outcome after the display of a behavior. In these situations, a response is strengthened by the removal of something considered unpleasantClassroom Example: reduce homework Positive punishment, sometimes referred to as punishment by presentation, involves the presentationof an unfavorable event in order to weaken the response it followsClassroom Example: detention, scolding, call to parents Negative punishment, also known as punishment by removal, occurs when an favorable event is removed after a behavior occursClassroom example: take away recess, computer time The Skinner Box Used to measure responses of organisms (most often, rats and pigeons) and their orderly interactions with positive or negative stimuliThe rat would pull the lever and receive food. Subsequently, the rat made frequent pulls on the lever (positive)Pigeons peck a plastic disc in order to open a drawer filled with grains (positive)Rat inside the box and an electric current is sent into the box. The rat moves around the box, it would knock the lever by accident and the electric current would stop. The rats soon learned to go straight to the lever to turn off the electric current (Escape Learning)Skinner taught the rats to press the lever when a light came on in the box which would stop the electric current before it even started (Avoidance Learning) Sources http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/introopcond.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinnerhttp://www.kidsdevelopment.co.uk/bfskinnersbehaviouraltheory.htmlhttp://www.bfskinner.org/bfskinner/Home.htmlhttp://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.htmlhttp://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/skinner.html[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy_mIEnnlF4][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWyZHSZf3TM] Gary Beck